Aleron
General''' Aleron''' was a gorilla soldier from Ape City. As a young soldier, forty years before Taylor's arrival, Aleron was part of a unit sent to rescue monks from the distant crumbling monastery of Mount Lam. Finding the mountain path blocked, Aleron went on alone and witnessed the last monk shot himself, but on his return journey he was caught in an avalanche and had one of his eyes pecked out by a raven. Aleron took the ancient scroll the monk had been studying and brought it back to Ape City, where Councillor Tenebris promoted Aleron but destroyed the scroll which held evidence of the true history of humanity. Five years later, General Aleron was in command of a unit charged with clearing a community of humans from a cave system known as Hollow Cliffs on the edge of the Forbidden Zone. There, he argued with Lieutenant Varus over whether the humans should be simply sealed into the caves. Inside a cave, the two fought until a human shot Varus with his own rifle. To hide the dangerous implications of this, Aleron sealed the cave with Varus' body inside, but rumours among the soldiers questioned whether Aleron himself had killed Varus, thus breaking the first law of the apes. A further fifteen years on, Aleron had retired from the army, disturbed by what he had come to understand about humans. He was still highly respected in Ape City because of his military record, but was also close to those, like Doctor Cato, who sought to reassess the role of humans in ape society. Aleron came to realise that Tenebris and his protégé Ursus were behind the ruthless attempts to stifle any challenge to traditional values, which included the murders of Cato and of Councilor Quintessa. After Tenebris ordered the excavation of the Hollow Cliffs and discovered the bullet-damaged skull of Varus, Aleron was convicted of his murder and sent to the ape prison of The Reef. There, Aleron and his chimp friend Timon organised Aleron's escape. Cato's study subject, the human Tern, ultimately killed Tenebris after Aleron found himself unable to, but both Tern and Aleron were then swept downriver and assumed dead. Two years later (eighteen years before Taylor's arrival), Aleron and Tern had settled just inside the city ruins in the Forbidden Zone, and there organised a rag-tag community of humans who planned to assert their rights. The humans would raid ape villages such as Capua and then have the sympathetic chimp Timon sell the stolen goods and use the money to buy provisions and medicine for Aleron's worsening heart condition, as well as building up an arsenal of weapons. Timon eventually betrayed Aleron to Doctor Zaius and guided an ape army to the secret lair. Zaius' army wiped out most of the humans but Aleron died destroying the passageway that led to the Forbidden Zone (and trapping Timon inside for many years). Ten years later, Timon would return to Ape City as a preacher spreading the word of 'The Book of Aleron' - a belief in the equality of humans and apes. Although he was discredited by his former ally Prisca, Timon was remorseful for his role in Aleron's death and wished to make amends by continuing his legacy. Timon and his followers adopted the eye-patch as a symbol of their adherence to Aleron's doctrine. Notes * Aleron is exclusive to the continuity of the Planet of the Apes comic books published by BOOM! Studios. Appearances * Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #1 * Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #2 * Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #3 * Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #4 * Exile on the Planet of the Apes #1 * Exile on the Planet of the Apes #2 * Exile on the Planet of the Apes #3 * Exile on the Planet of the Apes #4 * Planet of the Apes Annual Category:Gorillas Category:Male Characters Category:Deceased Characters Category:BOOM! Studios Characters Category:Characters Category:Comic Characters